Alan Turing: The EnigmaA gripping story of mathematics, science, computing, war history, cryptography, and homosexual persecution and liberation. Hodges tells how Turing's revolutionary idea of 1936-- the concept of a universal machine-- laid the foundation for the modern computer. Turing brought the idea to practical realization in 1945 with his electronic design. This work was directly related to Turing's leading role in breaking the German Enigma ciphers during World War II, a scientific triumph that was critical to Allied victory in the Atlantic. Despite his wartime service, Turing was eventually arrested, stripped of his security clearance, and forced to undergo a humiliating treatment program-- all for trying to live honestly in a society that defined homosexuality as a crime. This New York Times bestselling biography of the founder of computer science and artificial intelligence is the definitive account of an extraordinary mind and life. --Excerpted from 2014 version, published by Princeton University Press. |
From inside the book
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Page 14
... writing problems that still plagued him : April 1 ( fool's day ) Guess what I am writing with . It is an invention of my own it is a fountain pen like this : - [ crude diagram ] you see to fill it scweeze E [ ' squishy end of fountain ...
... writing problems that still plagued him : April 1 ( fool's day ) Guess what I am writing with . It is an invention of my own it is a fountain pen like this : - [ crude diagram ] you see to fill it scweeze E [ ' squishy end of fountain ...
Page 104
... writing down notes on paper : Computing is normally done by writing certain symbols on paper . We may suppose this paper is divided into squares like a child's arithmetic book . In elementary arithmetic the two - dimensional character ...
... writing down notes on paper : Computing is normally done by writing certain symbols on paper . We may suppose this paper is divided into squares like a child's arithmetic book . In elementary arithmetic the two - dimensional character ...
Page 402
... writing from the tubes on to the magnetic drum was all but impossible on the prototype . Alan wrote : Judged from the point of view of the programmer , the least reliable part of the machine appeared to be the magnetic writing ...
... writing from the tubes on to the magnetic drum was all but impossible on the prototype . Alan wrote : Judged from the point of view of the programmer , the least reliable part of the machine appeared to be the magnetic writing ...
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Common terms and phrases
Alan Turing Alan Turing's Alan wrote Alan's American AMT's arithmetic Bletchley Bletchley Park Bombe boys brain Britain British calculation called Cambridge cathode ray tube chess Christopher cipher Computable Numbers cryptanalytic Darwin delay line Delilah differential analyser digits discussion Don Bayley Donald Michie EDVAC electronic enciphered engineering ENIAC Enigma machine explained fact G.H. Hardy German Hanslope Hilbert homosexual human idea instructions intelligence interest kind King's knew letter logical Manchester mathematician mathematics Max Newman mechanical messages method mind Morcom naval Enigma Neumann never Newman operations organisation paper perhaps Peter Hilton physical play plugboard position possible Princeton principle problem question Robin Gandy rotor scientific secret Shaun Wylie Sherborne signals symbols talk tape teleprinter theorem theory thing thought took Turing machine U-boat universal machine Womersley word writing